Why I Decided to Write My Life Story: Excerpts from A Life Story

By Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen with Koosje van der Kolk

Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen, known also as Geshe Dhonden, was born in 1941. He had been a monk at Ganden Jangtse when he fled Tibet in 1959 with only Lama Tsongkhapa’s Legshe Nyingpo bound around his waist under a disguise of borrowed layperson’s clothes.

He lived in Buxa Chogar, the camp in West Bengal, India, where Tibetan monastics studied, for the first ten years of his life in exile. In 1969, he moved to Mundgod, Karnataka, in South India, where he labored for two years, helping to reestablish his old monastery in exile.

In 1972, he went to Varanasi to study at what became the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies, where he received the acharya degree in 1975. He then returned to Ganden Jangtse, contributing to the development of the monastery and receiving his geshe lharampa degree in 1979.

From 1984 to 1992, he taught at the Central Institute for Buddhist Studies in Leh, Ladakh. Then in 1991, Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested that he become the resident teacher of Maitreya Instituut in the Netherlands. He arrived in July 1992 and has taught there ever since.

Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen’s autobiography A Life Story was published in 2018. In the following excerpts, Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen shares his motivation for writing the book and describes his thoughts on coming to the West to teach. Then co-author and editor Koosje van der Kolk writes about her motivation to help Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen share his story.

Introduction: Why I Decided to Write My Life Story

In fact, there is no need to write my life story (lo gyü) for I am just a simple monk. In the old days in Tibet before 1959, only high lamas, high government officials and other important people wrote their life stories. The life stories of common people like me were uninteresting. I am not rich or famous and not a great scholar. So I’m not important, nor is my life story important.

Why then did I decide to write my life story? Once, I told some nice normal stories about my life to a few of my students. I was just talking but they said, “How interesting, please write it down, how you studied in Tibet and escaped to India, how you studied in Buxa Duar and what happened after your escape—we really want to read it.” My friends and other Tibetans requested the same, but I said, “I don’t have time.” They suggested, “Just write a few sentences each day and you’ll have told it within a year.” These days, even common people write life stories about their life in Tibet and what happened during the Chinese occupation and how they escaped, so I accepted. If there are many such stories, I can tell mine as well, even though I had a simple life and it is not really necessary.

My first main aim is to explain the life of a monk in a Tibetan Gelug monastery before the Chinese occupation. Senior monks know how the relationship was between teachers and students, and how hard philosophy monks studied. Young monks of these days don’t know about the profound relationship between teachers and students, how much discipline we had and how hard we studied. To them, the life in Tibet looks like an antique story. I will never forget my life in the monastery, and it is important that new monks know this, it has to be told.

My second main aim is to explain about the harsh life of the philosophy monks in a refugee camp in Buxa Duar in North India. It is unimaginable in these modern times to think about how we had the worst food and how many monks became sick and died. I’ll explain how, despite these harsh circumstances, the monks continued their studies with great zeal in order to preserve the Buddhadharma. In Tibet, there was a great and strong fire of Buddhadharma until the Chinese Communists destroyed the monasteries and the fire of the Buddhadharma was almost extinguished. The 1,300 philosophy monks in Buxa Duar kept the glowing embers burning by studying philosophy, thus preventing the Buddhadharma from Tibet from being extinguished. Not much is written about our lives there, and new monks don’t know how the monks studied with great effort. Nobody knows how we lived and that the only reason why we stayed was to preserve the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This is history and important to tell.

My third main aim is to explain the harsh conditions in the initial period in Mundgod in South India when we built the monasteries. Oh, there were so many problems, and we worked so hard—in the fields as well as in study and ritual to preserve the glowing embers of Buddhadharma. Only this way did it become possible to put paper and wood on the glowing embers so that the fire of Buddhadharma could burn again. …

Chapter 8: Great Expectations

I had great expectations and thought it might be beneficial to teach Westerners. I understood that Westerners experienced a high standard of material welfare and discovered that materialism did not satisfy them fully. I thought these circumstances were conducive to a search for spiritual values and I hoped that my teachings could contribute to the quality of their lives and happiness. My expectations and belief in a fruitful exchange were based on the fact that I had seen Westerners had a high level of intelligence and education and were goal oriented. They were critical and scrutinized a subject to see if it might be beneficial for them and if so, they would go for it and practice it. If not, they would leave it aside. This tendency in Westerners made me hopeful that my stay in the West might be fruitful. I myself am not able to practice the Dharma fully. I felt that my students in Mundgod would not be left alone; they could go to many qualified geshes in the monastery in Mundgod.

In Europe there were fewer qualified teachers and I thought there might be a greater need for me in the West and I deduced there must be a special connection between me and the Netherlands, for among the many qualified lamas, Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested me to teach there. I wished to contribute to the fulfillment of a dedication prayer wishing that Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings may spread everywhere where they have not yet spread.

The Promise to Edit This Life Story

Notes of the co-writer and editor Koosje van der Kolk

I composed the life story (namthar) of my dear and precious teacher Geshe Dhönden, known to me as Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen. He told me his life story during many interviews between 2006-2017, and I recorded them in ten chapters. I tried to use his words as much as I could. Please know that we talked in English without a translator to hand, me being Dutch, Geshela being Tibetan. We tried to understand each other and sometimes it helped that I knew some Tibetan words with a Tibetan-English dictionary to hand. I tried to verify the facts with the help of the Internet, but many stories were unique and I had to understand them from Geshela’s word. There might be misunderstandings that are not made clear. All the mistakes come from me, please accept my apologies.

My short-term aim working to record Geshela’s life story was to learn more about the life of my teacher. My middle-term aim was to create a pillar for the preservation of the rich Tibetan Buddhist culture, so essential for the preservation of Buddha Shakyamuni’s 84,000 teachings—the only gateway to liberation and enlightenment. My hopes are that this life story may contribute to preserve the Buddhadharma and the Tibetan culture. My long-term aim was to be a vessel that opens our heart to our precious teachers’ compassion and wisdom—the only path to enlightenment.